Hardly Started
by LaurelPrincess
Summary: My name is Krystal, I am an enderdragon hybrid. Alongside my brother and our friends, I destroyed the compound, a science lab that created me and my brother. With that problem aside, another one grows. The gods have shown their interest in us before, but now I fear a war between them. This war would be over us. Our work has Hardly Started. (Sequel to Hardly Human) (Enderlox)
1. Begin Again

**And I am back! Welcome to the sequel to Hardly Human. If you haven't read that, I suggest you do. I hope you all will keep supporting me in this story!**

**This first chapter isn't the best. Finding a starting point for this was difficult for me. And it doesn't help that I'm really bad at writing about "normal" lives (always have been better at writing actiony stuff).**

**Quick notes: This story takes place a month or so after the end of Hardly Human. This chapter will have some recap from Hardly Human. This story will involve the gods of Minecraft, so if it seems awkward at any time, please know that I'm agnostic (not religious) and very scientifically-minded, so I know very little about religion. This story includes intact TeamCrafted, as well as Enderlox. I am still using the same cover picture since I don't have another. If anyone want to draw one, I'd probably use that. So please, if you'd like, I'd like a new picture for this story**.

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><p>"...I told you we would have our revenge..."<p>

I shot straight upright in my bed, eyes darting around the room in search of any danger.

But no, the voice from my dream was just that. A dream.

I sighed, and relaxed. Why couldn't I get it in my mind that the compound wasn't a danger anymore? Ever since we'd returned to Budder City, I'd been having these constant nightmares about the compound whenever I fell asleep.

Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I stood and walked out to my balcony, lifting my wings to warm them in the sunlight.

Yeah, I said wings. My brother and I are enderdragon hybrids. The compound was the laboratory that had created us, from the DNA of an enderdragon egg. The compound that we'd destroyed a month ago.

Yeah, my life is a bit complicated.

Reaching out with my telepathic powers, I determined that my brother was still asleep, and decided not to bother him.

My balcony was barely isolated, seeing as other people's rooms were right on each side of mine, with their own balconies. But the building was on the outskirts of the city, near the grand entrance, and my room had the most beautiful view of the skies and fields surrounding the city, and a convenient view of the river flowing nearby.

I headed back in after a short while, changing out of the light gray tank top and shorts I wore for sleeping.

I still usually wore black. Jeans and v-neck t-shirts, with glossy polished combat boots. I had completely abandoned hiding my Ender features, and therefor the cloak and sunglasses I'd worn back when I was hiding.

By the time I was ready, a few minutes after I'd started, my brother was still asleep in his room, adjacent to mine. So I headed out without him.

The first thing on my agenda was to visit Hector.

The little boy who we'd decided on calling my younger cousin of sorts was being taken care of with other kids his age.

But before I got to the building, I was distracted.

A few army recruits were arguing, one of them yelled, "I don't see why I have to call it 'budder' it's freaking gold, for Notch's sake!"

"C'mon man, that's not how we do it around here..." The other guy was trying to explain passively, his eyes wide in surprise at the fact that someone could be so ignorant.

If it wasn't a great offense to my friend Sky, I wouldn't have cared whether people called it gold or budder. I personally called it gold unless I was around Sky or the army.

So in other words, I stepped in.

"Excuse me, but as long as you are a part of the Sky Army it is requirement that you call it budder in front of the other recruits. We can't control you when you're alone or with your family, but if it offends others, such as this recruit here, then you must cease calling it gold" I said, commandingly.

To my annoyance, he simply sneered at me, not even seeming to notice that I wasn't fully human, and proud of it. "So? Who are you to order me around, girl? Who are you to tell me what to do"

However, to my upmost delight, the other recruit gasped, as though his companion had just been extremely sacrilegious, as though he was begging for his ultimate doom. "Oh, Notch. Oh, Notch! You're in for it now"

"Why? She's just some freak girl"

He must've noticed my wings then.

"This just goes to show how ignorant you are, Bruce!"

"What's up with you?"

"This is Krystal Ellis (that seems to be Ty's last name, according to Wikitubia). She's a general of the Sky Army, and the sister of General Deadlox. And you Will treat her with respect"

A third voice had entered the fray, one that I thankfully recognized.

I nodded to the newcomer, "Thank you, Corporal Eli, but I was perfectly fine on my own"

"I know, Krystal" He said, amusement in my friend's dark eyes.

Eli had been promoted to a corporal as well when we had returned.

"You go on and see Hector. I'll deal with this. Wouldn't want to be wasting our general's valuable time, now would we?" Eli said, still grinning.

I nodded, gave the recruit one last glance that was probably more instructive to him than anything Eli told him, and continued on my way.

"Here to see Hector?" The lady in the front room of the building asked.

I smiled, "Of course, Giselle. How's everyone doing?"

"Just wonderful, thank you for asking, Krystal"

Probably the most important thing to me that had happened when we returned to the city was that Sky, on my request, had started a new program for the Sky Army, an open policy of sorts.

He announced to the army that after he'd found out about Mist and Shade, he'd decided to ask the rest of the army.

Sky asked those to come forward who were outcasts, who were different. Who'd come to Sky Army looking for acceptance, but had still hidden their secrets.

And they did.

Many were simply underage, who had lied about their age in order to join the army. Others had siblings who were much too young to even think about doing that, but had still brought them in order to care for them. A few had prosthetics they had never told anyone about. Yet others spoke of minor mutations like extra toes they hadn't shown before. But quite a few revealed they were magic users.

Ever since Seto had practically been exiled, any other user of magic had been terrified of being doomed to the same fate. But now that peace had been made with the sorcerer, they no longer feared being chased away.

I felt like a big part of why all those people had decided to reveal themselves was due to our little group of hybrids, who were now perfectly open about who and what we were. This building was a sort of care house for those who were too young to even begin training, like Hector. The youngest training age was ten. Recruitment age was fifteen, which often made me wonder how young Ty had been as a general.

Honestly, Ty was the youngest member of TeamCrafted. The others were between the ages of nineteen and twenty six. And here we were, only sixteen.

Despite the fact that I was a general, I refused to become a member of TeamCrafted, and the others accepted it.

Climbing the stairs to Hector's room, I dodged all the little kids running around.

"Oh. Hi Krystal!" The little wither skeleton hybrid boy called as he ran to me when I entered the playroom he was usually in.

"Hey, Hector. How's it going today?" I asked, sitting down on top of his toy chest.

The seven-year-old sat down beside me, "Okay, I guess. Miss Giselle let me go out and see the farm animals with the others yesterday!"

In my opinion, Hector was the luckiest one of the five of us hybrids. He was the only one with very little physical appearance like the mob, and he was being raised well, in the way we'd all wanted to be. Between myself, my brother Ty, Mist, and Shade, he'd been well taken care of. We were an odd little family, that was for sure.

But there was only one problem with Hector. Because he was part wither skeleton, he couldn't really touch many people or mobs because he would wither them. Only his fellow hybrids seemed immune.

"That's neat, which ones did you see?"

"All of them! Chickens, cows, pigs, and sheep! I got to see someone dying wool too! Miss Giselle said it was for new carpeting after the attack"

The city was still recovering from the damage wreaked by the squids when they'd launched an attack a month ago. That was what most of the time this past month had been spent doing. Repairing and training so that wouldn't happen again.

The cat hybrid, Shade, had even created a new training regime for each of us hybrids, minus Hector. Mine and Ty's mostly involved honing our physical and magical powers, including our tails, as my brother had pointed out. I had to be careful with my tail now, because I had spent several hours sharpening the spines. Didn't want to hurt anyone, now did I?

Now that Ty and I weren't going all over the place, I'd had plenty of time to pay a little more attention to personal grooming. My dark violet scales and white claws had a nice sheen, and my hair was a glossy black. I had to admit that I liked feeling clean all the time.

I spoke to Hector for a while longer, and played with him a bit, then left.

As I entered the halls of the TeamCrafted base, where I lived, I couldn't help but remember.

There was the room I'd spent the first night here in, in front of which my brother and I had been truly reunited.

There was the statue of Sky slaying a squid where we'd met the next morning.

There was the meeting room where the truth about us had been revealed to Ty's friends.

Thinking of all the events of that month, I couldn't help but feel a burning annoyance. For the past three weeks, we'd been searching for any sign of where to look to find the gods. Searching every library and chapel, and coming away with nothing useful.

This was just me, Ty, Mist, and Shade. I had openly expressed to them that I didn't quite trust Sky on this issue. He was too devoted to Notch.

At least we had Mother. The enderdragon queen who had adopted me and Ty as her children had told us an ancient tale that she had learned. Too bad we couldn't even tell our fellow hybrids. We told them the gist of it, but Mother had forbid us to tell anyone but an enderdragon.

The libraries held no useful information. Telling us ways that the early people used to try to contact Notch or Herobrine really didn't help.

The priests only said that the harder an undevoted person searched for the god, the more difficult it would be. They told us that if we prayed and truly devoted our lives to the deity, we would find aspects of Notch within ourselves.

Needless to say, I pretty much ignored both. The early people sacrificed things of great value, and barely ever were they allowed to meet with the god, and there was no way I was going to sink low enough to pray to and devote myself to that man who called himself a god, who none except Herobrine and the enderdragons knew the truth about. Oh, and the fact that both Notch and Herobrine were probably still after us because of our creation.

"Krystal! Wait up!"

I turned to face my brother, "Oh. Hey, Ty"

"What's got you in such a hurry? Stomping down the hall?" He asked, looking puzzled.

'She's thinking about our holy issues' My brother's alternate personality, Enderlox, cut in. No one can hear him except Ty, and me because I can use telepathy, though I'm not the kind of person who listens in to everyone's thoughts. Usually, I just use it to hear Enderlox or see how people are feeling.

"Really? Any breakthroughs yet?" He asked, walking alongside me.

Glaring at him, I stated, "If I had one, you'd be the first to know"

Ty was in his human form at the moment, not needing to fly anywhere. Since my brother has a split personality between his human and ender halves, he is the only one of the hybrids who can switch between forms.

"We haven't heard anything of them since the battle with Herobrine's mob army. Do you think they've given up, and are just observing us?" My brother posed another question.

"No. Even though it is a possibility, I don't believe the gods of Minecraftia would just give up like that. Not after one battle that we ended up getting pulled away from, thankfully, by Mother"

But as we spoke about the possibilities, the sound of running feet from down the hall caught my attention.

I turned the corner in a hurry, and spotted a silver-haired girl knocking on the door to my suite. I had been so deep in thought, I hadn't realized we were so close to the generals' housing.

She looked up when we rounded the corner, relief evident on her face, "Ty, Krystal! I have urgent news!"

"What's up, Mist? Our quest?" I asked, keeping my voice lower than hers had been.

She lowered her voice too, "Yes, Krystal" The wolf hybrid looked nervous as she added, "Guys, Shade's in trouble"


	2. Shade

**I had a four day weekend, so I made the most of it to write this up. Thanks for the support already shown on this story! And thank you for the advice, AssaultRookie. I know I have a problem with run-on sentences and comma splices (that's what my old Language Arts teacher used to call them). I guess I just have a habit of feeling the need to explain things... And thank you for the offer, KKKstories.**

**To Gradyleeward: A- I have a plan for that scale thing much further on. B- I've never really been good at or liked using other people's OCs. C- If you're talking about Huskymudkipz, I don't watch him or Ssundee, so I barely know about them and that's why I barely mention them. D- The reason Krystal and Ty are the only ones of the hybrids who can use magic is because they're part dragon, as Seto explained in chapter 14 of Hardly Human.**

**Anyways, chapter 2! I said I can't handle writing about normal life, so I'm gonna just jump into the fray!**

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><p>"What!?" I snapped, wide-eyed.<p>

Mist nodded, fear in her pale blue eyes, "I have no idea where he is, but I found this when I came back from this morning's patrol!"

Every morning and evening, a patrol of recruits was taken along the river to check for any signs of squid activity. Sometimes the timing of the patrols were varied in order to try to catch the squids by surprise.

She was holding out a slip of paper. It smelled odd, like it was old paper.

I took it, and read aloud, "'Searching for your dear brother, wolf girl? He has been taken and put to the test. Let us see if he will survive...'" I flipped the paper over, "Signed by 'Vignar' That's one of the priests we went to, a while ago"

"Which church?" Ty immediately asked.

"The big one, with lots of holy people. The Church of the Holy Notch, I believe?" I recalled, having a hard time because we'd been going around to a lot of the churches and chapels.

'Put to the test...' Enderlox muttered, as we were quickly going to the church.

Try as we might, we couldn't find the priest named Vignar anywhere in town, and those in the church who probably would know his location only gave us their honest estimates.

In other words, we had no idea.

I knew Shade could handle himself, but the note's talk of putting him to the test made me uneasy. The five of us were a family, and we would stick together. Shade was like my other cousin.

As we were forced to return to the main building in the dark, Mist whimpered, her ears and fluffy tail drooping, "What if we can't find him? What'll we do, Krystal?"

She and Ty looked to me.

"We'll find him" I promised, "Even if it means spending all day and night searching for a month of more!"

"But not tonight" My brother put in hastily.

"Why not?"

"Because maybe Shade will be okay without our help. Maybe all he needs is a bit of time"

"All right" I agreed, then turned to my wolfy friend, "But until we find your brother, I'll let the other generals know that you're not available for patrol. We'll go out straight away in the morning"

She nodded.

(time skip)

In the morning, I went out for a quick flight before I joined up with the other two.

I wanted to see if I could spot either Shade or this Vignar with my enhanced eyesight, going from building to building in search.

The day before, Mist had tried to follow her brother's scent trail or perhaps catch the scent of the priest, but had failed both due to the sheer amount of people in the city.

I returned and met with the others just as we'd agreed. I sent a maid to the children's building to tell Hector that I wouldn't be there to see him today, that there was something going on.

"Where do we start today? The church again?" I asked my brother.

He nodded, thinking, "That's probably the best place to start. We have no idea where else to look"

"Let's just go, okay?" Mist seemed less afraid and more upset today, which didn't make much sense, but was understandable.

"All right"

But I had something else on my mind.

"Mist, do you still have the note?" I asked out of the blue.

She looked a bit taken aback, "Yeah. Here" She gave it to me once more.

There was nothing more written there, but I was thinking about something else.

"This paper smells old, oily, and musty. Where can we find paper this old?" I prompted.

"In a church, or a library, not like that helps" Mist mumbled.

"Actually, it might. We've only been looking for Shade and Vignar in churches and places of religious significance. We haven't been to any libraries. And the library most likely to contain paper this old..."

"Doxyn's!" My brother exclaimed, "The old, nearly forgotten, religious archive! I can't believe we forgot about that!"

Doxyn's was the library where we'd been looking for the oldest ways people used to contact Notch. It was part of what used to be the original town, before the city was built up. An old brick building in fair condition, though no one entered those doors except the keepers and the very few people who came searching for something very old and not available in the main city archive, mostly people who had permission to copy items for the latter reason.

"That is the priest's hint? Why would he take Shade to a library?" The wolf girl asked.

I patted her back, "Doxyn's must have secrets. Every good old building does. And a library most of all. I promised you, we'll find him"

When we arrived at the old structure, I was slightly surprised.

"It's closed" Ty said the moment he spotted the sign in the window.

"'Out of town for a few days. Come back on Monday' They're hiding something, all right" I added, reading the smaller note attached to the closed sign.

"That's odd, even though they're closed, the door's not locked" He'd just tried the door, and found it swung open easily.

Mist crossed her arms, "Why would it be? They don't have anything worth stealing, and most people who come here would turn away at the slightest chance not to enter"

"I don't think that's the case" I said quietly, sensing Enderlox agreeing with my deduction, "It's more like they're expecting someone..."

The interior was dark when we entered, and looked like the stereotypical haunted library, minus the cobwebs and some of the dust.

I flipped a lever and heard redstone click, a moment or two passed before the lamps embedded in the ceiling turned on. "Old wiring" I commented.

All of a sudden, Mist's nose twitched and her ears shot straight up, "I smell Shade! This way!"

She dashed off down one of the aisles between shelves, leaving my brother and I to follow her.

My friend ran for so long, I was almost convinced that she was chasing a false trail until I caught scent of it myself.

Among the overwhelming musty scent of old books, leather, and paper, came the scent of Shade, and a fainter bit of the sharp metallic scent of blood.

We came to a dead end, but Mist was still sniffing around, "There's something here, it doesn't end. I can still smell him somehow behind here"

I nodded, and wordlessly started to pull books off the shelf carefully. Who knew what knowledge these tomes contained?

Eventually, after a long, agonizing minute, I slammed my hand down on a hidden button.

Once again, there was a redstone delay before pistons pulled the wall apart, revealing a hidden doorway leading to a long and narrow hall.

The wolf hybrid took the lead again as we continued, not that there was any other way for the trail to go.

The hall led mostly straight, though there were a couple of sets of stairs we had to go down, leading me to believe that we were currently underground somewhere.

We walked slower, now that we were following something definite.

There was no doubt that all three of us could scent our cat friend as well as what must be the priest. The religious man's scent was heavier. "Vignar must have left Shade somewhere further down and then doubled back to get out" I deduced, though we'd all been thinking about it.

"Let's just find my brother and get out of here. This place makes my fur stand on end!" Mist commented, snarling a little.

My own brother and I silently agreed.

After the path went on for a while longer, Mist dashed forward again, but this time, I could see the reason.

"Is he there?" Ty called, and we ran again.

She had spotted a door, though there wasn't much light to distinguish it from the dark of the tunnel, which itself had only been lit by the glow of my eyes.

The silver-haired girl busted the door open, and ran to the dark figure struggling on the floor.

My hand found an extinguished torch, which I quickly relit with a little blow of fire.

The violet flames illuminated the tiny room. The walls were bookshelves, imbued with magic. Little white symbols levitated between the books and an odd table in the center of the room, beside which slouched our friend on the floor.

Shade's green eyes were wide and he took a deep, gasping breath when his sister ripped off the gag covering his mouth.

I looked him over as Mist continued to untie him, searching for the source of the blood scent, "Where are you injured?"

He shook his head, black hair matted slightly, "Little scratches. Most not my blood"

Mist embraced him as soon as she completely freed him, "What happened? I came home and you were gone, and this was on the table!" She was holding the note again.

But the first thing Shade did was look to me, "Thanks for helping us. I didn't know what she would do without me"

"Just explain what happened, you know we'd do anything for each other" I requested, "I get the feeling that this involved our little god issue?"

He nodded in agreement, sitting up more comfortably before starting his story, "In the morning, I guess after Mist left on patrol, I guess I was catnapped? I woke up in a chamber, not like this one. It was all stone brick. The man there was one of the priests of Notch from that big church we went to last week. He said he wanted to test us hybrids, and had chosen me because I was 'The only one alone of the two untested hybrids'"

"He must have meant you and Shade. Maybe he thought Krystal and I were proven in a way because of how we fought during the squid battle" Ty mentioned in the moment of quiet.

Nodding in agreement, Shade went on, "In the chamber he had me in, he released wave after wave of mobs, and I had to fight them. I still had my obsidian sword, thank your mother, but it was still rather difficult. That's why I have scratches and I smell like blood. After that, he used some kind of anesthetic gas or something to knock me out again and brought me here. I've only been awake a couple of hours. I'm glad you guys found me"

The cat hybrid thanked us again.

Once everything with him was settled, I went to check out the room.

It was tiny, not big enough for more than about six or seven people to be crammed in. I had to keep my wings tucked close to my back.

In the center of the room was what I expected was supposed to be the main purpose of this room, something I'd only seen in books.

An enchanting table.

Not even Seto or the Sky Army had one of these. From what I'd heard, they were rare in real life. Though according to what Mitch had told me, there was usually at least one in each Hunger Games, which was a simulated killing game he and Jerome liked to play, and were champions at.

The shiny black stone was the same material as mine and Shade's swords. In this case, the black stone block had top corners of diamond, and was covered with a red cloth, on top of which lay a book.

"I didn't know one of these existed in the city" Ty admitted, only now realizing what the table was.

"It must belong to the owners of the library. They must have been keeping it secret for a long time" Mist added.

"We can't take it. Only a magic user can make use of one, and Ty and I don't know how to yet. Plus, if it belongs to them, we're not going to steal. No matter how rare it is" I said, "Now let's get out of here"

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><p><strong>Yeah, one-chapter action here. It'll lead into the main plot, eventually. I kinda just wanted to develop these fourfive as a group/family**.


	3. Questioning Loyalty

**Back again! I'm really happy right now! I have this one friend who I haven't seen in over a year now but we've been talking online ever since he left, and he doesn't always reply to me, but earlier this week he and I had a really good discussion about why that was, and he was very honest. K, if you ever read this far into my story, I just want to tell you that you are awesome. Friends until time stops.**

**Gradyleeward- The only reason the enderdragon is Ty and Krystal's mom is because they were created from her lost egg. It wouldn't make much sense for Hector's dad to be the Wither because Hector is half wither skeleton, not half Wither. Also, as I stated in Hardly Human (Chapter 21), the Enderdragon, Wither, and Elder Guardian are not normal mobs, and there were no other hybrids of those three other than Krystal and Ty. However, wither skeletons are associated with the Wither. The Wither would maybe be somewhat familiar with Hector, and maybe even friendly, but not his dad.**

**Killerwolf99- (I know I answered your questions already, but I'm posting it here too so everyone understands my response to your review) No, Hector is not going to be "locked up" or a deadweight in this story, as shown in this chapter. The only reason he was in the child care place (nursery, as you called it) was so that he could have a more normal life than the others did, and so that he could be safer because they can't care for him as well because they're so busy dealing with all the threats. Also, he wasn't the most relevant character in the last chapter because why would they just bring him along on a potentially dangerous mission where they have no idea what they're getting into? Also, in real life, I don't really know that much about little kids except that they're annoying, my only siblings are close to my age, and I barely ever see my younger cousins. In other words, I don't really know much about how kids act. Okay, I think that covers that.**

**Wow, do you guys really like Hector or something? Two reviews about him, when he was barely even involved in the last chapter! Interesting... Oh well, new chapter time!**

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><p>"So what do we do now?" Mist asked. It was the next day, and Shade had mostly recovered from the day before.<p>

We were all hanging out in Ty's room, since it was the biggest. All five of us.

Once we had explained everything to Hector, we'd taken him out of the child care center for a while, maybe permanently. We wanted him to have a normal life, but that was going to have to wait. For right now, he was staying with either me during the days and Ty at night.

We couldn't risk something happening to our youngest member if we left him alone.

Because we had yet to find the priest, we couldn't leave either Hector or Mist alone.

"What do you think? We keep looking. We can't let a disgruntled priest who knows at least something about us that may involve Notch get away with this and unnerve us, now can we?" I said.

I was sitting on the edge of Ty's bed, with Ty was right next to me. On my other side was Hector, with one of my wings around him. Mist and Shade sat on armchairs across from us.

"No we can't" Mist growled.

Ty cleared his throat, "I just want to make sure that we're not overreacting. As far as we know, it might just be Vignar acting alone"

I looked at my brother, narrowing my violet eyes, "Shade could have died, Ty! Define what overreacting could be in this situation"

"Okay, you got me there" He said, holding his hands up defensively, "I just don't want to have Sky and the others concerned about us"

We'd been keeping our little personal quest secret from TeamCrafted. Mostly because of Sky. The only non-hybrid who knew of our venture was Eli, who I trusted implicitly. He hadn't even told Savannah, who he spent a lot of time with because she was still mourning the betrayal of her brother.

When you have a friend like Eli who will defend you even when you are at a disadvantage and cannot fight back, then you truly know who you can trust.

"You're right. We can't let them know what we're doing" I muttered. We were at such a stalemate. We had to search for the gods, but we also could not tell my brother's closest friends about it. Talk about infuriating.

A knocking came on the door, followed by a voice, "Ty, Krystal, are you in there?"

My brother stood and opened the door. Ian stood there, "Sky wanted to know if you two would be willing to do patrols of the city this evening and at midnight"

"Why?" I asked, coming up behind Ty.

"Well, first off he'd like to make sure everything's okay. Second, he kind of wants to know why you two have been so distant lately" Ian said.

Well, at least Sky knew better than to let a recruit carry the messages that might imply discontent within our group of generals.

"We can do that, make sure everything's all right with the city" I offered before Ty could open his mouth, "And we will talk to Sky. Thanks for letting us know, Ian" I practically closed the door on his face.

Immediately afterward, as soon as Ian moved away from the door, I turned to the others, "So, what's our alibi going to be?"

"We could say that we've been searching to evidence to discover whether or not there are currently other labs like the compound and the lab where Mist and I were created" Shade suggested, flicking his tail.

My brother looked nervous all of a sudden, "I don't want to lie outright to Sky, he's my best friend other than Seto"

I set my hand on his shoulder, "Don't worry, Ty. We can't trust his allegiance right now, we can't tell what would happen if he discovers what we've learned. Normally, I'm all for avoiding lies, but now is not the time"

'You know she's right. We can tell Sky the truth later. Right now, it's best for us to use this excuse' Enderlox thankfully backed me up.

"If it's only for now, and we'll tell him the truth later, then fine. But you're doing the talking, Krystal!" Ty finally relented.

-Thank you, brother- I whispered to Enderlox, and could hear him laughing.

"I'm fine with that" I said aloud. "I can do the evening patrol"

"Why the evening patrol and not midnight?" Mist asked.

"Because, as we agreed prior, Hector is staying with me during the day. That way, I can show him around the city and spend some time with him. This patrol is only really checking on people, not looking for trouble or anything" I explained.

"That'll be fun!" Hector said. For the most part, he had been sitting there quietly and watching us. He was a listener, just like me. He listened to us and picked up information.

"Good, glad you like the idea" As I was responding, I turned towards the door, "Well, shall we go?"

We left my brother's room, and all five of us walked down to the main lobby-like area, where Ty asked the receptionist where Sky was. She sent us to the command room.

The command room was a meeting room of sorts which could only be accessed by the highest rankings of the Sky Army and their guests.

Sky was obviously waiting for us there, since he was the only one in the room.

"Hey, Sky" My brother and I greeted him as we sat down across the table.

"Hello, guys"

After a bit of small talk about patrols, I decided to get to the point.

"You asked us to explain, so explain we shall" I started off, "Sky, it's a personal little thing. We didn't want to trouble you or the army with it"

"With what?" His response was curt, yet a tinge of curiosity colored it.

"We've been searching library archives to see if there are or have been other reported illegal genetic research facilities like the compound. We have no idea if there are, but if there is, and if the scientists knew about them, then maybe we could find them there" I stated, "We haven't found anything yet, but we'll keep looking. You never know, there's always one article you might overlook"

Speaking about it, I almost wanted to go back to the libraries and look through their archives with this in mind. But no, the compound was destroyed, the scientists severely if not forever put out of everything.

The gods were our focus.

I noticed he kept rubbing his amulet with one hand as he thought, "Hmm... Well, I guess that's understandable. They're not an issue to you right now, are they?"

"No. We just want to be aware for the future"

"Good. Just don't slack off on your duties to do this, then. We're done here. Have a good day" He dismissed us rather quickly, but added, "Ty, can you stay back? I'd like a word with you"

I exchanged a glance with my brother, who sent me a thought, 'Go. It's fine'

I nodded, and left the room with the others. As we waited outside, Enderlox gave me a rundown of their conversation, which was technically not as cheaty as listening in on their thoughts myself.

'Sky's asking if we're really up to anything. He might think you're manipulating Ty, sister'

'Ty says we're not, but he's getting a bit nervous'

'Sky doesn't look like he's buying it. Oh! He's asking why we were going to churches. He must have had someone keeping an eye on us'

'Ty says it was because we were praying to Notch to help us find the information we need'

'Wow, I've never seen Sky this sleazy. He's asking if You have been acting strange lately'

'Ty's denying that, of course'

'Now he's asking if we really have been praying, since none of us have before shown any allegiance to Notch'

'Ooh, Ty's starting to get annoyed'

Through the wall, I could hear muffled shouting.

'Ty's asking if Sky thinks we're disloyal to the army. I bet you can hear him from out there'

'Sky says that's not what he thinks. Oh, Ty's storming out now'

Enderlox's calm voice did not ready me for exactly how angry my brother really was.

Slamming the door open, he stomped out. "Come on, Krystal. We're going" The beginnings of a violet hue were showing in his rust-red eyes, as what usually happened when he got really angry.

Exchanging a glance with Mist and Shade, I followed, along with the other hybrids. Ty eventually stopped beside a fountain in the outside garden, where we were alone.

"I'm sorry for looking so angry" He said, the violet fading from his eyes, "Just... Some of the things Sky was saying..."

"What'd he say?" Hector asked, inky black eyes wide and innocent. He understood exactly what was going on. The wither skeleton boy sat down on the brick rim of the fountain, his feet swinging.

"He thinks we're really up to something. He didn't buy it at all"

"I heard you guys yelling..." Mist added.

"Enderlox told me what went down" I admitted quietly.

"Yeah, I wasn't paying much attention to him, but I did hear him talking" Ty said.

"So what do we do?" I asked again.

"We do our best to act normal again, like we don't care about our little quest, just do our duties. Maybe one or two of us at a time could sneak out and continue doing stuff" Shade suggested. He was fairly good at coming up with smart courses of action.

I sat down beside Hector, handing him a small gold coin for the fountain. It was a wishing fountain, all the coins thrown in went to funding the Sky Army anyways. Might as well let the kid have a bit of fun.

"So we just act like nothing happened" Ty stated.

"I guess. Now I especially think we can't trust Sky" I muttered.

"I bet he thinks the same about us"

After a little while of just cooling our tempers, I took Hector's hand, "Come on, Hector, let's go explore the city"

"Yay!" He said, following me out of the garden.

In truth, the TeamCrafted building's garden was really more of a greenhouse. It was the biggest garden in the entire city, taking up more than a whole lot (a property lot) on its own.

"I know you've been into the city before, but let's take a good, long stroll. You never know what you can find!" I said, taking to the sidewalks to make sure we didn't get in the way of anyone's horses (yeah, no cars).

"Okay! I've only been to a few places before with the other kids, mostly the farm and one time we went to the market!" He said excitedly.

I'd gone out a bit early for the "evening" patrol, it was only late afternoon, but I really did want to show Hector around and relax more than anything.

As we walked down the sidewalk, I did feel relaxed for the first time since Mist told us that Shade disappeared.


	4. Patrol and Priest

**I'm excited and nervous right now! My first performance for an extracurricular thing is on Saturday! The anticipation is killing me, so I decided to kill time instead of it killing me, by writing this! Happy whatever day it is that you're reading this!**

**Gradyleeward: I love your interest in Hector, but you're still not quite getting it... Even if I do implement the Wither, he's not going to be Hector's (even adoptive) dad. If he was adopted by any mob, it would be the wither skeletons.**

**Killerwolf99: Thanks! It's okay. I'm glad you like Hector. I like him as a character, but I don't really know what to write for him. And since I write these A/Ns before I finish writing the chapter (or in this case, before starting), we'll see where I go with Hector in this! This chapter was fairly difficult to write, as well. It's so slow and normal! I can't stand it! I love action! The ending was fun to write, but the first part was difficult!**

**Have a good day/night, Flowers! Love, Laurel.**

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><p>My relaxed feeling didn't last too long.<p>

We were barely more than a block away from the TeamCrafted building garden when something happened.

I was walking past a small crowd of people, Hector by my side. The last person I passed, I felt a strange twinge in my heart. I knew him from somewhere.

Casually turning around, I didn't see him again. I hadn't been paying much attention, just enough to remember that he had light-colored hair and was about our age. And somehow, he'd managed to avoid my detection.

While I was watching after the crowd, waiting to see if whoever that was would resurface, Hector tugged on the hem of my shirt, "Krystal, what's wrong?"

Snapped out of my trance, I looked down at his innocent little face and ran one hand through his dark hair, "It's nothing. Just a weird feeling"

Thankfully, he dismissed it, taking my hand and pulling me in the direction of our first stop, the market.

I'd decided to start in a place we already knew well, and where there would be trouble, if any. It was fun to walk and see all the wares.

I did allow Hector a few presents. I bought a couple of books he asked for. Being a seven-year-old surrounded by businesslike adults and teens was not entertaining. He'd made it clear to me that he was bored, and I'd let him choose a few books.

After checking out the book stand and buying a few, I took another look around. Nothing unusual here, just a busy marketplace.

Walking around the city, I pointed out a few other places to my hybrid friend.

Two of those places were where the battle with the squids had been fought. I pointed out the building where I'd fought the first leader of the squids, as well as the street where I'd killed the second.

Laughing, I half-mimed the battle for him.

Technically, I wasn't allowed to train him yet, but I'm sure that there must be an unsaid exception for hybrids. Hector had more of a need to fight than other kids his age, and he already had the capability.

The wither skeleton boy was tall for his age, and though he was thin, he was quite strong. He seemed more like nine or so than seven.

Besides, it couldn't hurt to just show him a couple of moves.

"I jumped down on its back, like this..." I jumped up, then landed crouched, hands lightly set on the stone of the street, "And dug my sword straight down..."

I continued, thankful that the road was pretty much empty other than us.

"Krystal, what happened to the squid after you killed it?" Hector asked, just as I was finishing explaining what had happened after the battle.

I looked at him, shrugging, "At Sky's request, all the good meat on it was turned into calamari. The rest was burned, like the rest of the squid bodies. It was the best way to get rid of them, since their bodies don't despawn because they're technically passive mobs. Only hostile mobs' remains despawn"

"Oh. Krystal, what about us? What are we?"

Deep question.

"Well, from what I know, when we die, it's like humans. We don't despawn"

"Like Celosia" He whispered, probably thinking I couldn't hear him.

I pretended not to. I wasn't his sister, but I had promised her that I would take care of Hector. And so I was trying, but I wasn't the same as the girl who had taken care of him and been by his side for his whole life.

We moved on quickly, neither of us wanting to linger in this place of death.

After another while walking around, I finally spotted something that might be considered suspicious.

It was Eli, sneaking around and trying to look inconspicuous on the edges of an open plaza area. I wouldn't even have noticed him if I hadn't known my friend well.

I immediately hushed Hector, slowing my footsteps so we were casually walking.

I led Hector through a small market along the side. It wasn't big, only having a few shops, but served a purpose in this case. It let me get to Eli nearly undetected, certainly not noticed by whoever he was watching.

My Hispanic friend noticed us, certainly, but didn't react until we were standing behind a colorful tapestry that his us from the plaza.

"Krystal" He greeted me, still glancing around the corner in order not to lose whoever he was following.

"Eli, what's going on here?" I asked, voice low.

"You know the person you told me about this morning? That priest you called Vignar?"

"Yes..." I said, starting to understand.

Eli seemed to know, but explained anyways, "I've been scouring the city all day, and about ten minutes ago, I found someone matching the description you gave me"

"And you're following him now"

"Yes"

"I'll stay back then. If he is Vignar, he knows us. If he sees me and Hector, he'll know something's up"

"Thanks. You keep watch and listen, see if anything happens. Hi, Hector"

I shot him a grateful look, then shooed Hector into an abandoned, but covered, shop stall. Colorful cloths hung over the frame, and after I closed the flap, was just like a big tent, fully closed off.

While I listened in on Eli and other people's thoughts, Hector started to read one of his books. I kept an eye on him, but focused more on my mind and that of others.

Eli was patient. Multiple times, while waiting for the opportune moment, he left the plaza and altered his appearance. He put on a jacket, a hat, sunglasses, or took them off in different combinations. The hat he had hid his hair (h-ception!) pretty well, though there weren't many people who shared his slightly darker skin color.

But eventually, he gave me the heads-up that he was following the target, out of the plaza.

Hector and I left the market stall, sneaking along the edges of the plaza so no one would see us, just as Eli had been doing when we arrived.

I followed my sense of Eli's mind, to a side street that seemed pretty shady, like an alley.

Eli was facing a tall brunette man in his late twenties or early thirties, with blue eyes and wearing the white robes of a priest of Notch.

-That's him. I'm certain- I said to Eli, still hanging back so that Vignar did not catch sight of me.

'Okay' He thought back, speaking to the priest next, "Okay, face the wall and put your hands above your head. You've been identified as a criminal, so I'm taking you in"

On a random thought, my mind strayed to the mere fact that Eli Could mentally respond to me. He was one of the few who I'd made a mental connection with.

I'd forged that connection early on, back when I had come to the orchard. I'd marked Eli as the most trustworthy, and had cemented the connection when I'd first used it when I'd hidden from their friend/neighbor.

The only other people I had specific bonds with were Ty and Seto. Ty's reason was obvious. Seto's had partially been a mistake when my mental powers and his magic collided when we first met. But I didn't mind, it was useful.

I had made temporary mental bonds that weren't as concrete with several other people, meaning the other hybrids, but I usually didn't have to use those mental pathways.

Vignar was glancing around out of the corners of his eyes, searching for whoever Eli's contact had to be.

In his mind, the priest was thinking that Eli had hands-free microphone and earpiece, so that someone could feed him information from a short distance away. Someone involved, yet uninvolved at the same time.

'Krystal, go. I'll handle this. He's looking for you or Shade or one of the other hybrids. Take Hector and just keep on with your walk thing. Vignar here will be waiting in the holding cell when you return' Eli told me.

I gritted my teeth. I really didn't want to leave him behind, but he was right. I had to. He had this perfectly set.

"Let's go, Hector. Walk around a bit more" I told that to the kid, but my heart wasn't in it anymore.

Vignar tried to hurt Shade. No One would ever hurt my family on my watch.

We walked the city until the sun started to go down, stopping and doing a few things on the way, but Hector seemed to pick up on how anxious I was to get back, and didn't ask to stay out longer, though he was certainly having fun.

As we approached the building, my pace quickened slightly.

Entering, I left Hector with Mist, who was standing in the lobby, and told her to get him some dinner and take him up to Ty's room for the night.

Luckily, she already knew the reason for my rush, and didn't question me. Also, she was Hector's favorite playmate, since she was maybe a bit less serious than me, and because he could play with her without the risk of withering her.

I headed downstairs to the basement where the holding cell was, passing a few recruit guards on the way.

Eli was standing outside the one-way glass, keeping an eye on his prisoner.

I went to stand next to him, "Can't really hide this, now can we? Sky and the others are going to find out"

He nodded, "We can always tell Sky only part of the truth about what happened. This man Did attack Shade, after all"

"For all we know, Sky will come and interrogate Vignar himself, and Vignar will tell him everything he knows, because he wants to see our downfall"

"We'll do whatever we can to prevent that" My friend promised.

I set my hand on his shoulder, "Let's go speak to him now, before someone comes demanding to know why he's here"

(potential language warning from here on. Minorly offensive words)

I entered the holding cell, after making sure that Eli was the only one watching through the one-way glass.

There was a table and two chairs. Vignar was sitting on one of them, so I took my place across the table.

"Hello, Vignar" I greeted the brunette politely, though there were much ruder things I could and wanted to say.

"General Krystal, I believe" He responded, matching my polite, but cold tone.

Of course he knew my name. The bastard probably knew all the public had ever known about us. Also, being the only one in the city with a permanent set of wings and a tail, as well as a general, I was bound to be a rememberable person.

"I'm not one for niceties, Priest. Let's get down to business. Why did you kidnap Shade and call him and Mist untested?" I said, not letting my anger creep into my voice.

"I suppose that you will know the truth no matter what, and if I do not tell it, you will demand it"

I had let people know that I knew when someone was lying, but had kept my telepathy a secret to the general public, so he wouldn't know.

"You are right. Now, speak" I commanded.

He looked at me, pure loathing in his eyes, "Fine" he snapped, glaring at me.

I glared back, not cowed in the slightest, "Do as I say"

He kept glaring, but spoke, "I do simply as my lord orders. My lord ordered me to test the untested. You and your brother have fought valiantly, but the others have barely seen battle. The wither boy is too young, the wolf girl was occupied. I took my opportunity to serve my lord. I took the cat boy and tested him, then I brought him to where I did not doubt that his sister would find him. That was her test. Though honestly, I did not expect anyone to discover the clue so quickly. I assume that was you who realized what the paper was?"

I nodded.

He continued, "My lord requested that you find the table. He is curious of you. No one has used that enchanting table in years, no one has found it and had the capacity to use it. I expected you would find him in a few days, and you found him in not even 24 hours. You and the wolf girl certainly passed that test"

"And why do you follow Notch's commands?" I questioned.

He grew visibly indignant at the question, "I have devoted my life to my lord! I will take any opportunity I can to get closer to my lord!"

I didn't stop to sooth his irritation, "So you follow commands even to this extreme?" I wanted to add words like weakling and coward, but held my tongue.

He shot to his feet, slamming his hands down on the table. I didn't even flinch. He was nearly shouting when he said, "You are an inflammatory agent upon this world. Your mere existence has riled up my lord and the dark one! You and your other creations" He spat out the last word, then continued, "have caused upset to my lord! And you will pay!"

I gracefully stood, meeting his angered eyes with my calm, violet gaze, "I think we're done here. I have collected all the information I believe you have"

As I turned my back and walked out, I could feel his anger rising even more as he realized. I'd irritated him just enough so that he would get angry and forget any plan he'd had to hide information.

I heard him pounding on the locked cell door as I returned to Eli.

"Flipping bastard" I said brusquely.

He didn't comment for a moment, then said, "So did you?"

"Did I what?"

"Get all the info from him?"

"It's all he had to offer. That's all he knows" I waited a moment before adding, "Eli, you know we can't let him go yet"

He nodded, "I know. I can get him transferred to a private cell, if you'll do some paperwork"

I sighed, starting to cool down, "Yeah, yeah, whatever it takes to keep him off the streets"

I really disliked the whole paperwork process. I was a roaming individual, I didn't like to conform to society and follow rules. And that included paperwork unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Yes, I know you hate paperwork. Just please do it so that we can do this! Look, I'll manage the transition, you don't have to see him again for all I care! Just sign the papers, and you can let me deal with it. I'll handle it, no problems"

"Thanks, Eli. Now where are the forms we need?" I sighed.

I truly was grateful to have Eli. He'd stayed by my side, helped me plan, and been the most loyal human friend I'd ever had. He also was a lot better at following rules than I was. He was a corporal, so he had higher-ups like me who he technically had to obey. Me? The only person even slightly above me on the hierarchy was Sky, because he was the symbol of the Sky Army. It was his.

My Hispanic friend gave me the forms, and I filled them out while he watched.

After signing the prisoner transfer form, I filed it away and went upstairs.

I snuck a peek into Ty's room, since it was nearly midnight and he and the other two hybrids had left for their own patrol. Hector was asleep, curled up on top of Ty's green and black bedspread.

I let him be, closing and locking the door, and went to my own room for the night.

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><p><strong>Yeah, the person Krystal somehow knew in the beginning of the chapter won't be relevant until much, much later on, not until pretty much the end of this story. I just really like his character, and thought he might get a bit of a cameo or something. I'm weird like that.<strong>

**Love, Laurel**


	5. Plans and Discoveries

**Ty's favorite color is dark purple! Enderlox confirmed! (Just watched his "Google Huskylox" and he said it in there!)**

**Yeah, sorry this chapter is a bit late. I had it about half done, then I got sick last Thursday. Oh joy. I was still going to school, but then I slept in today by accident (by over an hour actually) so my mom let me stay home. That and, she was the one who came into my room and helped me when I was awake and coughing at three in the morning. Thanks, Mom!**

**Gradyleeward: I am planning on adding one or two more hybrids, but he/she/they probably won't be near Hector's age. I don't want to be rude, but at what point are you going to notice that I do pretty much everything myself and prefer not to take suggestions when I already have things planned out? Sorry if that's rude, no offense.**

**Also, I have something planned for Valentine's Day, but not in this story. It's going to be posted under Minecraft, so keep an eye out for it! It would mean so much to me if people read that. It's sort of a one-shot I wrote, it won't have anything to do with stories I've written before. Well, you'll see. But please do look for it tomorrow!**

**Anyways, now that announcements are done, on to the story!**

**Have a good day/night, Flowers!**

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><p>As soon as I saw my brother in the morning, I told him what Eli and I had discovered from Vignar. It naturally wasn't too much of a surprise, we'd expected either he thought the god had ordered him to or he had done it because he thought it would be best for Notch.<p>

We spread the information to the other hybrids, but Ty had news of his own as well, "Krystal, Sky really does think that you're manipulating me. Sooner or later, he's going to do something. He might demote you or expel you from the army, maybe even have a court marshal. We need some kind of action, something that'll draw attention away from you"

I shook my head, "You know that's neither permanent nor our primary focus. We have some of the information we need. I don't think we'll find much more here"

"Are you suggesting we leave and go somewhere else?" Shade asked, from where he was casually leaning against the wall.

I thought for a moment, "I suppose so... We could go somewhere where there would be even more religious information hanging around. I think in one of the books I read, there was a mention of an ancient library that catalogs all religious information"

"You mean the Kingdom of Rikilyn? That's a long way away" My brother said, we'd read that book together.

I nodded, "I know we'd have to hide everything again, and we might even have to pretend we're priests ourselves in order to get in, but I have the feeling it'll be well worth it"

"I agree" Mist was standing now, "We really need to get out of here. For the past few weeks, ever since Sky might have caught the slightest hint of what we were doing, I've felt so on edge. Shade's been feeling it too, and I know you two have. Honestly, maybe a few days or however long it takes to travel might be good for us" She was unusually serious.

"Right. Well, Hector, what do you say? We can't just drag you along into the wild if you don't want to. It's probably not going to be too much danger" and I almost added 'and we might be slightly less conspicuous if we have a kid along'

People seemed to trust you more not to steal or otherwise be a criminal if you brought a child along with you, I'd noticed that in the market yesterday. That didn't matter too much, even though it would be useful. The only reasons I was even Considering taking Hector along were because it wasn't too likely to be dangerous, and the fact that I was slightly afraid what might happen to him in our absence.

I didn't trust anyone except the four of them, Seto, and Eli. They were the only ones I could be assured would not betray us.

"Road trip!" He said excitedly, probably joking slightly, "Yeah, I wanna come, Krystal! Don't leave me behind now!"

I nodded, "If you want to come, then you can. This involves all five of us"

If he hadn't said yes, I probably would have gone a little bit out of our way to go drop him off at the sorcerer's house, even though it would have cost us some valuable time because the kingdom was in the opposite direction. I really hadn't wanted to leave him here.

"Now that that's settled" Ty started, "We're going to the kingdom of Rikilyn, right? We need to plan this out. When we are leaving, what we need to bring, and all that. I'll take care of supplies. Krystal, I'll let you decided when we leave. You would anyways"

"That I would" I confirmed with a grin, "Can you get what we need within a day or do you need two?"

"Two days, please. Don't want to be too conspicuous"

"All right then. We'll leave in two days. Ty, you have today and tomorrow to get supplies. We'll leave the next morning before dawn" I ordered, proud of the capability of my group.

"Okay" Hector agreed.

"Whatever you say, Krystal. We're with you" Shade said, speaking for both himself and his sister.

I nodded, "Good. Let's get going. Hector, you're with me again today. Mist, Shade, split up and help out people today. It makes us look less threatening if we're not all walking around in a group together. Ty, you know what to do"

'If there is something we are not entirely sure if we need, I will speak with you, sister' Enderlox announced, having been silent until that point.

-Thank you, brother-

Ty made no comment. He looked a bit annoyed, even though he had been less harsh to the voice ever since Enderlox had saved me.

"What're we gonna do?" Hector asked, as I led him from the room.

Smiling at him, I said, "Well, I know for a fact that Giselle (care house lady person) is taking the other kids to the farm again. You wanna go see the animals again?"

"Yeah!"

(Time skip)

The next day, while making sure I had nothing suspicious in my room before we left tomorrow, I thought back to the two items I had found back in the compound and had hidden in my room.

I had inspected the scale, and still couldn't determine what it was from. It smelled slightly of bleach, as though it was a scale that had been stripped of its color in order for the scientists to study it. Then again, anything in that horrid place had smelled slightly of chemicals.

But for some reason, I wasn't able to find the logbook. I hadn't opened it even though I'd been the one who had found it and kept it secret from our human friends except Eli and Seto. I was slightly worried about what secrets it would contain.

I started to panic slightly when I went all through my room and still couldn't find the book.

-Enderlox, did Ty move the logbook? I can't find it anywhere-

'No, sister. Ty and I do not even know where you put it, remember? You hid it from everyone' Enderlox's comment reminded me.

-Thanks anyways, brother-

I hadn't moved it. Even though I had never read it, I had checked on the book every day until the day Shade disappeared. Someone else had found it, and taken it.

And it wasn't too hard to find a possible culprit.

"Sky..." I muttered angrily to myself, "When we get back, if I find out that you stole the book..."

I moved the scale to another place, even though the thief hadn't taken it before. The scale meant something. I had yet to find out what.

(Time skip)

Two days later, Sky hadn't tried to pull any other accusations on us and I hadn't yet figured out if he had the scientist's logbook, however, we were ready to go.

At three in the morning, we slipped out of our rooms and met up outside the city. We'd figured it would be safer to leave in two, smaller groups. Myself, Ty, and Hector, and then Mist and Shade.

After we met up, we walked north until it became light out, each carrying a bag. Ty and I had two shoulder bags, since we couldn't put anything on our backs because of our wings. It felt really awkward if we did. Mist and Shade had backpacks, and Hector had a smaller version of the same.

(Time skip)

We were an odd group, for sure. We made sure no one saw us whenever we spotted other travelers.

With either Ty or I always flying above, the other joined Mist, Shade, and Hector below. The one above kept an eye out for trouble, while the other relaxed and walked.

Right now, two days into our travel, it was my turn above.

I just kept scanning the landscape, over and over again, trying to go super slow to match the pace of the land-bound.

Eventually, I spotted a tiny dot on the horizon. But it wasn't on land, it was in the air.

I stared at it for a long moment, doing my best to hover. It didn't seem to be stationary, seeing as I had stopped and it continued to grow larger.

Deciding that I would see if it was any danger before I told the others, I did my vision-enhancing thing that made it look like I was seeing through binoculars. It was quite useful.

It was still pretty far off, but I could see that it looked something like a big, blue chicken, with a large beak and long legs. At the very least, it was Some kind of bird.

-I'm gonna go check something out. Be back in a couple of minutes- I warned Ty before flying off.

I heard his reply as I headed towards the odd bird, 'All right, Krystal. Stay safe'

As I got closer, I could see that the bird's beak hung loosely open, and could spot a row of teeth on both the upper and lower jaws. This was no kind of bird I'd seen before.

Nearing it, I could see it very clearly now, from only about thirty blocks away.

It was a something like a periwinkle blue, with small, beady yellow eyes. Its beak was large, probably making up about half its face. Its back and side had two different hues of the periwinkle blue; the darker color making patterns on a lighter background. Its tail was small, composed of only three feathers that weren't even too long.

It wasn't the most graceful flier either, flapping around like it had no idea what it was doing. Made me grateful for how well my design had worked out, in a way.

"What are you?" I asked plainly, as soon as I was close enough, hoping this would work again. I knew some mobs I could talk to and understand in return, like Mother's endermen and that creeper who had spoken to me when Herobrine's forces had attacked us.

It looked at me as though it had no idea what I was, which was understandable. Probably especially because I was expecting an answer, and most humanoid beings probably couldn't understand it anyways.

"My name is Desren" He said hesitantly, voice seemingly male, "I am a moa"

"What is a moa?" I responded, interested in the fact that he was afraid of me.

"I'm lost" The moa named Desren answered, "I flew too low from the Aether and now I can't find my way back"

"The Aether...? You're a mob from the Aether?"

"Have you heard of it? Humans often refer to the Aether as the resting places of their souls. But you might not know that, you don't seem too human to me"

"You're right. I'm only half human. But I do understand what you mean. Do you have any ideas as to how you can return?"

"Well..." He cocked his head to one side, tail feathers fanning out for some reason, "I have heard legends that those lost from the Aether may find their way back by finding a golden cloud, but I haven't seen one yet"

"Wouldn't that only apply if the one lost could fly? I asked, extremely curious now. This bird was giving me some good ideas as to maybe how to get to the Aether.

"Well, if you ever see the Aether, young miss, you will understand. Most of the mobs there can fly" He was less adept at hovering than me, and started to have to fly in circles to stay airborne in one general area. The moa just seemed to be built so awkwardly.

"I see... Should I let you go back to searching then?"

"Might as well. Perhaps we will meet again, dragon girl"

"Perhaps, Desren"

As I watched the odd Aetherian bird fly away, I found a curious brother flying up to me.

'What was that?' Ty asked, after checking to make sure I was okay.

-A clue. An Aetherian mob who has no idea he might have given me exactly what we need- Was my response.

I explained to him what the moa had said about using golden clouds to access the Aether, where we could no doubt find Notch somewhere.

He understood immediately, 'So if our plans fail or we don't find what we need in Rikilyn, then we can try out this method? It's worth a shot'

-The downside is, it would only be you and me. The others can't fly. But it might be a good thing if we don't bring them. From what I know, the Aether is a bunch of floating islands. That sounds dangerous if you don't have a safe way out if you fall off- I said thoughtfully.

'Yeah... Maybe you're right'

-I'm almost always right-

'I still can't win against you'


	6. Rikilyn's Library

**So, I think this story is maybe going to end up at least a bit shorter than Hardly Human. We'll see. I spent a while writing out a synopsis of each chapter so I had an idea what I was going to do in the middle. The way I usually write is to have an idea for events, then make up the middle and exact dialogue as I go. Yeah, I plan out the big events and imagine those and Then write the rest. I'm weird like that.**

**I also posted another story for Valentines Day, "It Must be Fate" so you can go check it out. It's devoted to my crush, and the actual story is centered around playing Mineplex Survival Games. Yeah.**

**Have a good day/night!**

**-Laurel**

* * *

><p>After we set out from Budder City, it took us all of a week to get to the Kingdom of Rikilyn. Other than meeting the moa, nothing of importance had happened. Just a week of continuous travel.<p>

The same day we were going to get to Rikilyn, though, I started to hear something. No one else did, so I kept it quiet, because I was pretty sure I knew was it was.

Especially considering the fact of whose voices I was hearing.

Mother, Notch, Herobrine, the Wither, and the Eldar Guardian.

I had somehow become mentally linked to the legends' sort of chatroom, an extra, empty dimensional space they used to connect their consciousness and speak with each other.

And they were arguing. About us.

I stayed silent about it, although Enderlox could sense my nervousness.

Although both Notch and Herobrine were all for somehow capturing us and forcing us to give up the secrets they believed we had, they hated each other and fought to keep the other from doing what they wanted.

Stuck in their stalemate as they were, it was understandable how very little had happened to us recently at their hands.

Mother was doing her best to protect us, the Wither was siding with Herobrine, and the Eldar Guardian was staying neutral.

I made up my mind to never get on the bad side of the Eldar Guardian, if he was taking this position on the issue rather than jump on the bandwagon.

I ignored the voices, or at least pretended to, and then we finally came within sight of the walls of Rikilyn.

The vast wall surrounding the religious city was well-maintained, crafted of stone brick. Sentries were posted every fifty blocks along the top of the wall.

To avoid being seen, we activated our disguises.

Ty and I hid beneath thick robes of pure black cloth, every single one of our features were hidden, not even our faces could be seen.

Mist, Shade, and Hector changed into hooded robes of a beige fabric, which were more open, but still hid Mist and Shade's ears and tails.

Shade announced us to the city guards at the gate as wandering priests. At one point while making or way through the city, someone asked what kinds of priests we were.

Shade explained to that person that Ty and I were highly devoted and under vows of silence, and could neither talk nor show our faces to anyone. He explain himself and Mist as charitable students of myself and Ty, and Hector being their adopted younger brother they were teaching as well.

I'd made him memorize this story while walking, and if he was ever looking for something to say, I could telepathically tell him.

The reason I'd chosen to pass off him and Mist as our students were for a couple of reasons. First off, we were all underage, but needed someone to seem like an adult, and my brother and I were taller than the others. Secondly, students were often less suspicious than adults, and "adults" were less suspicious with younger people like students.

They let us through easily. From what I could tell, the townspeople hated strangers, but were perfectly accepting of new-coming priests.

Using our story of being highly-devoted priests, Shade managed to procure rooms at a nice local inn for us, as well as convince someone to let us have undisclosed access to the library in solitude.

This story seemed to be quite believable.

Meeting in one of our two rooms at the inn, we discussed what to do next.

"Okay, so I think that when we get to the library in the morning, as per our agreement, we should split up to look for information. Ty, you and I are on our own, speaking to no one. Mist, Shade, one of you will take Hector" I started off, being our sort of unofficial leader.

"I'll take him!" Mist instantly offered.

"No, I'll take him. Can't have you acting like a child and blowing our cover" Shade told his sister.

"Aww..." She whined, but didn't complain more than that.

Hector looked to the cat hybrid and asked, "Shade, do I hafta sit there while you check out books?"

"No, you can read one of those books Krystal bought for you. I saw you brought them" Shade answered.

"Okay"

"Now, what are we going to be looking for, exactly?" Ty asked, shifting in his smothering robes.

At least he didn't have wings that begged to be freed. I had cut slits in the fabric that couldn't be seen because of the folds. My wings were stretched out behind me, and I kept folding and unfolding them, to get some kind of exercise. It might be a few days before I could fly again.

"Anything that looks like it could help. And keep an eye out for any information about the Aether, or Herobrine" I suggested.

"This is gonna be a long day..." Mist said.

(Time skip)

The morning after, we made our way to the library. The owners acknowledged us and spoke with Shade for a short while, then let us have free rein of the library.

The only reason we'd been allowed that was because it was supposed to be a sacrilegious act to disturb the studies of one who had taken a vow of silence. Their students, in this case, Mist and Shade, would fetch things for them.

They just locked up the library, and gave us a key to get out whenever we wanted to.

It was a large library, a total of four stories and the basement. We split up to cover the most ground.

I expected the top floor would contain the newest tomes, so decided not to send someone up there. Ty got third floor, Mist took second floor, and Shade and Hector chose the main floor.

I chose the basement, because odds were it had the oldest of the books on religion.

I went through countless books, skimming them to try to find the knowledge we needed. I must have covered nearly forty blocks of bookshelves before I finally found something.

But it wasn't quite a book.

I had slid my hand into an empty space to get a good grip on a book that was falling apart and needed particular care, when my hand found an uneven surface.

It was a switch, a button just like what we'd found in Doxyn's library back in Budder City. I pressed it cautiously, though sure it wouldn't be anything I couldn't handle.

Just the same as before, a passage opened, and led into the dark. I followed it on my own, since I didn't know if anything useful would be down here. The piston door had closed behind me as well, so no one could follow me.

As before, the path led a long way down, to a small room. The room was pretty much the same as before as well.

Old, musty smells of paper, the slight charred scent of a long-ago extinguished torch. Walls of old books, and best of all, another enchanting table.

I flipped through a few of the books, finding some interesting things. Most interesting were two particular books I found.

The first was priority, it was about the Aether. It spoke of legends of Aetherian mobs, and what the dimension was like, exactly. It also mentioned a different way to get to the Aether, a portal made of glowstone and water.

The second was more about the immediate thing before me, the table. This one was about enchanting and the different kinds of enchantments. It even spoke of the methods used.

I glanced down at the obsidian blade hanging from my belt. Was is possible that I had enough control over my magic to enchant it...?

Only one way to find out.

I pulled out my sword and lay it on top of the enchantment table, horizontal to the floating book.

Beside the table, on the floor, was a tool crafted of diamond. I picked it up. The book called it a chisel, used for one of the most important parts of enchanting.

Following the rules of the book, I picked which enchantments I wanted, and found their corresponding runes.

It took a long while, but I carved the runes into my shining black blade, polishing it afterwards and making sure it was exactly as sharp as before.

Then, the next part.

In the floating book on top of the enchanting table, I found the words corresponding to the runes, and chanted them aloud.

My sword floated above the book, and I didn't dare to stop and look in surprise, I just continued with the magical words.

After I finished and as my blade fell back onto the table, I noticed it had gained a slight violet glow, more violet than the color the book had explained as "pinkish-purple" I assumed it was just because my magic might be more Ender in origin.

I had successfully enchanted my sword to be extremely sharp, as well as given it a burning effect that made the sword grow hot when it was used in battle.

I was satisfied.

Exiting the tiny room and tunnel, I carried out the book about the Aether upstairs, to where I collected each member of my hybrid family on each floor. We met up all on the top floor, where I explained what I had found and showed off my sword. However, I felt exhausted, and assumed that my magic was somewhat depleted.

"I'm impressed" Ty admitted, "I didn't expect you to figure the magic out to do that so quickly"

"I didn't either" I said, sheathing my sword, "Actually, I was very surprised there was another passage. Doxyn's and this library must have been made by the same people"

"It would make sense. They're from about the same time period, I think" Shade added his thoughts.

I nodded, "Exactly. But what is most important is this" I held up the Aether book, "I read every bit of this. Every single fact known about Aetherian mobs is written here, there's even notes in the margins where whoever knows about the passage had added his own thoughts and observations. Someone around here must had access to an Aether portal"

"Yeah, but I highly doubt they'd be willing to let us use it"

"Exactly. We may have to either make our own or use the method the moa told us, with the golden clouds and all"

"Either way, we have our first leads. I don't think we'll find much more, if that was hidden and locked away. Let's get out of here" Ty said, pulling his hood over his face.

(Time skip)

Outside, we found our way back to the inn, where Ty and I took our meals in our larger sleeping room, where the boys slept. Mist and I had our own, more private room where we slept.

We continued discussing what had happened, and I took even more care to conceal the glow that surrounded my blade.

"Wow, these mobs look so weird" Hector commented, paging through the book.

Though it was old, the book was well-taken care of, and wasn't falling apart like so many others.

"They're mobs from another dimension, Hector. They look different because that's the way they've adapted to their environment, just like Netherian mobs" I explained.

"I think they look cool. You saw this one, right, Krystal?" He was pointing to a picture of a moa.

"A blue one like that, yes"

"Anyways..." Ty said, "What's the plan now, Krystal? We have most of the information we need, we just need to see if it works"

I thought for a moment, "Well, you're right. We need to test out what we know. But we also may need to stay in Rikilyn for a few days... To look for the Aether portal and to not seem suspicious"

"Right. If we leave right away, they might think we're running away and we've stolen something. But if we stay a few days, and pray at all the churches, maybe bless a few people, they'll think we're doing exactly what our story describes, as traveling scholarly priests"

"Let the 'fun' commence" I stated sarcastically.


	7. Aether

**Sorry for the wait between chapters! In case you haven't noticed, I've got a new experimental project that I've been working on besides this story. It's called "The Tempered One" and I am very impressed by how different my main character is in that story (compared to my usual main characters) That's all I'm gonna say about that. You'll have to check it out!**

**I now have a Town of Salem account. I play every few days whenever I can get on. If anyone's interested, feel free to send me a pm saying your ToS name. I'd be willing to play with you.**

**In other news, Gradyleeward has recently posted a story called "The Crepper King" and it's dedicated to me! That's so cool! So you can check that out if you want to.**

**Also, Grady, I told you I already have a plan for the last hybrid. He's not going to be Aetherian.**

**To TheFanficCritic: I don't exactly have something like that planned, but you can expect the Valkyries to appear sooner or later.**

**Anyways, have a good day/night! I'm on spring break as of today, so there might be chapters popping up within the next week!**

**-Laurel**

* * *

><p>It took us a total of about five days to give up on the portal method.<p>

We couldn't figure out who had written the Aether book, or who had the portal. I wasn't even sure there was a portal anymore, I couldn't sense anything of great power anywhere in the town.

We couldn't find glowstone anywhere either. The Nether was more dangerous than ever in the past ten years, according to a merchant and his friend adventurer. It was too dangerous to try to get glowstone from the Nether, even by adventurer standards. None of the other merchants had any either, it was too valuable for potions and had sold out months before.

We altered our plan slightly.

I managed to work out something so that Mist and Shade would be apprentices of the Holy Church for a while, while Ty and I tried the other method of getting to the Aether.

They would work in the church and keep an eye on the actual priests, to make sure Notch wasn't sending them instructions or telling them about us.

The only reason they and Hector had to stay behind was because this was the method that required flight, as I'd asked the moa before. They couldn't fly, and therefore, couldn't come with us.

As Ty and I left the city and shed our confining robes for our usual clothes, I couldn't help but feel guilty. My brother and I were always leaving the others behind, and going off on our own. Our whole little family of hybrids was almost never convenient, but one or two of us could go and get a job done.

And that one or two was usually myself and Ty.

Right now, Mist and Shade Were collecting information, but it was just a minor task they'd been left to because they couldn't fly.

I couldn't imagine not flying, not having wings, always confined to the ground...

My earliest memory was the scientists encouraging me and Ty when we were learning how to fly. We'd been about three years old. There were much nicer scientists there then, but they'd drifted away as the experiments became more horrifying.

I shook my head, chasing the thought from my mind. I never wanted to think about that place again.

-Ty, any idea where we would even go to find that golden cloud?- I asked, flying a little bit away from him, scanning the skies.

'I'm not sure'

'Go to the ocean. It's not too far away. But fast, please' Enderlox said.

-Any reason why?- I asked.

The dark half of my brother hesitated before answering, 'Sister, I have this odd feeling. Like... We Need to be at the coast, and soon'

-That's probably intuition. It's better than anything else we have so far. Let's go, Ty-

'Wait, you're trusting him so quickly?' Ty asked.

-Enderlox is trying to help, Ty. I don't know when you're going to accept it, but he is, and I trust him. Now come on, or I'm leaving without you- I said, stern.

He paused as I beat my wings and headed west, in the direction of the ocean.

I heard him swearing at Enderlox as he frantically tried to catch up to me.

'Sometimes, I really hate the both of you' He mumbled when I slowed down so he could fly beside me, our violet-webbed wings filling the sky.

-Oh, come on! You love us- I laughed.

'I wouldn't expect anything else from you, Ty' Enderlox muttered darkly.

I mentally soothed Enderlox, but kept flying. My brother and I were silent until we came upon the sight of the ocean.

The sun was setting, casting an orange glow upon the land. I didn't like the color orange much, but I loved sunset orange, it was really the only hue of orange I liked.

-Now, let's take a look around- I said, looking up at the few clouds drifting up above us.

"There!" Ty yelped out loud, abandoning our mental conversation.

I looked to where he was pointing, and sure enough, the cloud he was pointing out was very clearly gold.

'Good job, brother' I praised Enderlox, then spoke to Ty, "Okay, let's get up there!"

I beat my wings, catching the air beneath them and lifting myself higher up in the sky.

Curls of wind tugged at the tips of my wings, and I smiled as they lifted me up, closer to the cloud.

The book had mentioned this as well. A divine wind that would truly carry us up to the Aether. We were doing it.

I didn't dare to speak, this was too good to be true. At long last, we'd found our way to the Aether.

I burst through the golden cloud, its touch like silk against my skin. I grinned at the sensation, but gasped from amazement mere moments later.

When we came out on the other side of the cloud, we were in the Aether. The floating islands exactly as they'd been described in the book. It was rapidly growing dark.

-We made it, Ty. You were right, Enderlox- I whispered, all of us so quiet.

Then, out of nowhere, I saw dark mobs wandering around.

And something that looked like a dark cloud with lines of softly glowing blue was coming towards us.

"Ty!" I yelled in warning, jumping back in the air and pulling my brother along with me, barely avoiding the jolt of blue lighting the cloud mob had shot at us.

"A Tempest!" I exclaimed, once we'd gotten far enough away from any of the islands.

"We need to find some place to stay and wait the night out" My brother suggested.

I glanced around, "That little island over there in the middle of nowhere looks pretty safe"

"So that will be it"

We flew over to the island, and I lit it up with some violet-flamed torches.

There wasn't much else we could do but wait out the night.

"I'm going to sleep. Goodnight, Ty, Enderlox" I muttered, curling up on the soft mint-green grass.

"Goodnight, Krystal"

'Goodnight, sister'

I felt Ty's wing brush my arm for a moment, then I fell asleep.

(Time skip)

I woke just before dawn, just as the sky was growing light on the horizon.

Ty was snoring softly beside me, and I decided not to wake him up yet.

As the sun rose, I turned and looked to the island nearest to ours, a good fifty-some blocks away. I wanted to see if the mobs here acted like Overworld mobs on the day/night cycle.

I could see a Tempest, as well as a moa-like mob the book had called a Cockatrice. The book had warned against both, stating that the Tempest was a night form of a normally playful mob called a Zephyr, which threw little balls of clouds at others, which had a tendency to knock the others back or up in the air. Tempests, on the other hand, shot blue lighting and fire at anyone who came too close, as we'd found out first hand that was true.

The Cockatrices apparently spawned at night, and shot poison quills from their tails. The quills themselves weren't the danger, it was the poison. The book had described something called a white apple, which apparently stopped the effects of the poison.

I could see other shapes moving around further away, but it was too far to see distinctly, even with my enhanced vision.

As the sun peeked over the horizon, I noticed they were looking up, expecting something.

By the time the sun's light covered most of the land, and it wasn't dark anymore, both the Tempests and Cockatrices grew paler in color, turning a bluish white. They reverted to their day forms, Zephyrs and moas.

I was grinning widely when Ty woke up.

"What are you doing...?" He asked drowsily, sitting up.

I pointed over at the other island, "I've been observing the mobs. It's really interesting"

Ty squinted at the distant floating land mass, then sighed, "I truly am envious of your eyesight. My hearing's such a bother"

"Well, at least if you need to, you can eavesdrop on someone across a room. That's gotta be useful" I pointed out.

"I like your powers better than mine, except for the glowing claw thing I have, that's badass"

'It most certainly is' Enderlox, the one who had discovered that particular power of theirs, muttered.

"Let's get ourselves settled a bit. There's trees over there, and according to your research, these mobs don't attack during the day. We can build a base and get a few supplies. Do some mining even. Apparently there are ores here too" Ty said.

I laughed, "Just make sure you don't mine out the bottom of an island!"

He punched me lightly on the shoulder, and I laughed again.

(Time skip)

Ty and I were mining, having found an island that was particularly deep. We hadn't yet made a home, but had collected wood and had found some of the white apples just to be safe.

I was mining out an area with my stone pickaxe, Ty was on the other side of the island's underground doing the same. I was also keeping track of the gods and bosses' quarrel.

Man, these guys just did not give up or stop talking. I felt like it was some kind of half-conscious world similar to DreamSight, and they used it without having to devote their attention to it or expend much effort.

Suddenly, I heard a voice that was clearly Not in the same conversation as before.

-_Krystal? Where are you, dear one? I cannot see you!-_

I gasped, and responded, -Mother!-

Her voice was faint, from far away, -_You can hear me? Krystal, where are you? I can't sense you or your brother anywhere, and the endermen can't find you!-_

-Mother, we're fine. We're in the Aether-

_-The Aether is far from safe for you two-_

_-_Notch doesn't know we're here yet. Trust me, I can hear your conversation with them. I know he'd let it loose if he found us-

_-You can hear the conversation of the divine beings? Dearest one, none can but the...-_

I cut her off, -Gods and bosses. I know, I already figured that out. I don't think I can speak there, but I can listen-

_-That is impossible_- She stated.

-All Ty and I are is impossible-

She hesitated a moment before agreeing.

-Mother, we're going to confront Notch-

_-Dearest, I cannot speak with you very long, you are too far away. I wish you and your brother luck. I wish I could do more to protect you...-_

-Just having a mother is more than enough. Thank you-

_-Goodbye, Krystal-_

Her voice and presence vanished from my mind, but I whispered into the empty air, "See you soon enough, Mother"

"Who you talking to?" Ty asked, coming into my mining area, lugging a chest full of stone and ores behind him.

"Oh. Hi, Ty" I explained to him exactly what Mother had said to me, even finally admitting to him and Enderlox about the voices I'd been hearing for about a week now, the gods and bosses.

"Well, things are getting interesting, eh?" My brother said.


	8. Observing and Finding

**This chapter was mostly written to and from an extracurricular event. I like this chapter.**

**Side note, I now have an email and twitter for this account. They're linked on my profile if anyone's interested. Twitter will mostly be used for updates as well as random facts about the stories. Or basically whatever I want. I've never had a twitter before.**

**Have a good day/night!**

**-Laurel**

* * *

><p>My brother and I spent the rest of the day gathering resources. The mined-out area seemed to be a fairly good temporary home.<p>

The passive day mobs didn't seem to mind us either.

There were sheep with an odd symbols on their blue wool and large, crossed eyes. White rabbits with a blue swirl on their sides. Pale brown cows and pink pigs, both sporting large, golden-yellow wings that didn't seem to fold very well. The cows bore the unusual symbol as well, though the pigs did not. Their wings bent in half and just stayed like that, right above their backs, and it looked unnatural to me.

And I would know, seeing as I had wings myself. But maybe it was just my personal experience, because their wings were more bird-like, while mine were dragon wings. But even birds folded their wings more elegantly than these animals.

I got the feeling that the wings had evolved solely by necessity, for crossing between islands. Even though some mobs didn't even have wings, such as the sheep and the rabbits, though the latter seemed able to float.

Of other mobs, there were the moas, who for the most part ignored us. There were also the zephyrs, who were very annoying in the way they were constantly trying to knock us off the island, even after they saw that we had wings and it didn't affect us. Once, I even saw an odd blue plant that swayed on its own, even with no breeze.

Ty was downstairs, fixing up our little mine hut, while I was up on the surface, observing the animals, collecting wood and even managing to collect some of the white apples that stopped the cockatrices' poison. Although I was also fairly sure that poison did not affect us.

I soon wandered down the stone staircase we'd made, going through the wooden door. Skyroot was apparently the name of the wood in the Aether.

My brother was busy building up walls, creating rooms.

"Do we really need all this?" I asked, looking around, "It's just a temporary base. You said we'd only be here a few days to a week or two, right?"

He nodded, "Yeah, but what if we ever need to come back here? We have time, Krystal. We can't go out looking for Notch until tomorrow. Might as well spend our free time fixing this up, just in case we someday have to come back, and don't want to find everything missing or rotting"

I sighed, "Fine. If that's what you want. Makes no difference to me. Want me to help, or can I keep watching the mobs and learning their behavior?"

"Do whatever you want, Krystal. I don't particularly need any help, not unless I get to some heavy lifting. I'll call for you if I do need your help"

"Okay then. Good luck with building"

"Good luck with your observing"

(Time skip)

The next morning, my brother finally let me go out searching. Since neither of us quite had our bearings yet, he elected to stay behind at the base, since I was able to find him anywhere. Therefor, I could find my way back.

As I flew, my thoughts wandered about the environment around me. The air was very clean here, above the clouds. Also, all the plants always seemed healthy, even though the trees were a yellow color, it seemed natural. The animals, also, seemed extraordinarily healthy. Not one living thing was hurt or ailing.

I rather liked it, but just like before, it seemed unnatural, fake. Like I was walking around in a child's fairy tale play-set, and like I hadn't yet realized everything around me was not real.

And that feeling I didn't like.

I flew across many gaps and islands, feeling a bit downcast, missing the difference of the Overworld biomes, the vivacity of the struggle for life down there. This place was too unnaturally strong in life.

(Time skip)

I was far away by the time I finally found something. Out of the range where I could telepathically speak to my brother.

I'd been listening to the Wither and the Eldar Guardian arguing over the Guardian's neutrality on the matter of us, I had nearly missed what I'd just found, and had nearly been caught unaware.

A single bird-winged woman, flying around above a particularly large island, on which was built a structure, like a castle.

I was pretty sure it was one of the most dangerous of the Aether, the mysterious people known as the valkyries.

The valkarie wore light metal armor, and carried a spear. She must have been a guard of the castle.

But what sort of castle was it? Was it the residence of the valkyries? Or was it exactly what I had been searching for...?

I was still far off from the winged woman, observing with my enhanced sense of sight. I was fairly sure that she had not yet seen me, which was good.

I dropped down below the treeline, as my dark wings were pretty easy to see in the pale dimension.

Observation seemed to be my best tactic here, where I knew only what the book I'd found had told me. By observing, I could understand their behavior and sometimes how they would react to some things.

So I observed the valkyrie.

One thing I noticed was that she actually didn't spend too much time in the air. Though she had wings, they weren't large and powerful like mine and Ty's. They seemed only just large enough to keep her in the air.

Instead, she patrolled in front of the castle, on the ground. She flew up in the air only about every ten minutes, and then only a quick loop to make sure there were no enemies anywhere around. Then she returned to the ground.

From that, I assumed that the valkyries must not have been the strongest fliers, which was a hint of weakness to one gifted with flight such as me.

She never saw me. I was sitting in the upper branches of a tree, ducking my head under when she flew because, once again, my black hair would be too easy to spot.

I guessed that she was a young valkyrie, with light blonde hair, pale skin, and white-beige wings that made her fit right in to this dimension, especially compared to me. If there was any dimension I was suited to, that I fit in to, it was the End. Naturally.

I sighed, perhaps a little too loudly, even if she didn't hear. I didn't like this place. Already I missed home. Home in the End with Mother. Home with my hybrid family, wherever we were.

After a while, I had found out about as much as I could.

It was time to do something.

I knew I was a good fighter, so I decided to give her a fair chance, even though the book had said they were good fighters as well, which would explain why she was a guard.

I lifted my wings, making it very obvious. Holding up my violet-membraned and darker-violet-scaled wings, I held them there for a long moment before actually pumping them and catching air. I lifted myself up into the sky.

I had chosen a time when the valkyrie was in the air already, so that she would see me easily. And she did.

Her head snapped around to face me the moment she caught the color and movement out of the corner of her eye. Her blue eyes followed my flight, and she readied her weapon as I approached.

"Who are you?" She demanded, "State your name and business here!"

I almost laughed. That would be a simple question down in the Overworld, but here? Where humans could not easily go? Where there were hardly ever any strange faces?

But then again, maybe she thought I was just a strange valkyrie from far away, from another group or colony or whatever they were called.

"My name is Krystal. I'm here to see who this castle belongs to" I responded, a not-so-kind grin on my face, showing my fangs.

The valkarie gulped. Well, she certainly knew I wasn't either a valkyrie or a human now. "I cannot allow you to do that. I protect this castle, and I must battle any who threaten it"

"That depends on who it belongs to"

"Enough!" With a screech, she charged at me.

I easily dodged her attack. She wasn't too fast.

We hovered there, about fifteen blocks apart, caught in a staring contest.

"Light and dark..." The valkyrie said, barely loud enough for me to hear.

"I am not darkness. Just as you are not light. You may be Aetherian, but that does not mean you are pure and right" I said in reply, which seemed to irk her a bit.

She let out another screech, making me glad my brother wasn't here, but did not move. Her blue eyes started to glow, letting off a pale light.

I felt the next part a moment before it happened.

In a burst of light and energy, I saw the valkyrie's form shift. Her wings doubled in size, and grew whiter.

So like a combat mode of some sort, I assumed. A way to make it easier for them to fight and fly at the same time, and give them an aerial advantage. But it must also have been temporary. Otherwise they wouldn't fly around with those small, barely adequate, wings.

I grinned, "This should be interesting"

In response, she charged at me again. This time, much faster.

I could still dodge, but just barely. Her spear got uncomfortably close to my wing.

"Bring it on" I said quietly, now in full battle readiness.

This time, I went for her, which she wasn't expecting. I crashed into her, and she barely managed to regain her flight, keeping herself from smacking into the ground.

A lot of this aerial battle so far had been just charging at each other, which the valkyrie was doing now, going for me with her spear.

Instead of just dodging, I moved aside at the last moment, grabbing her spear by the wooden handle. With a good grip on it, I shoved it forward into her stomach.

It was only the handle, but with the force I'd used, I'd bet it did some damage, especially hearing the gasp she had let out.

Grappling over the spear, the valkyrie looked pointedly at me and asked in between grunts, "Why don't... Why don't you use your own blade?"

I pumped my wings back, releasing my grip on her spear and moving backwards, away from her.

In response to her question, I pulled my obsidian blade a few inches out of the sheath, far enough so that its violet glow could be seen. "It wouldn't be fair. The same reason I don't do this" I lit my hands up with fire, then extinguished it. "My magic and weapon against only a spear would not be fair"

She looked at me again, this time calculating. Scrutinizing. But I saw her eyes lighten slightly.

She moved, as though to throw her spear aside as well, but I raised my hand to stop her, "No, keep your weapon. I have my own that I cannot be rid of" Meaning my claws, which were clearly visible.

The valkyrie nodded, gripping her spear again, "Very well then. My spear against your... claws..."

I smiled, "That's more fair"

She agreed.

I was sure that if anyone was watching, we were quite a sight. Her feathery white wings, my webbed violet wings, together consuming all the space in the air above this clearing.

I charged her again, but instead of just slamming into her of grabbing her spear, I clung to her, digging my claws into her pale skin, raising blood for the first time. I tucked my wings in slightly so they were at less risk.

She screamed, and somehow managed to quickly grab the handle of her weapon right behind the spear point. She stabbed downwards with it, catching me on my upper arm.

I gritted my teeth, refusing to cry out. I dragged my claws on one hand down her own arm, and use the other hand to knock the spear away from me when she pulled it out of the open wound on my arm.

The valkyrie's armor was light, only a chest piece and skirt of metal. It left her arms, legs, part of her abdomen, head, and neck exposed. Not the best design.

All of a sudden, I pushed off of her, giving her an accidental scratch on the arms. I spread my wings and quickly flew up.

When I was what I deemed high enough above her, I tucked my wings in again and dropped like a rock.

I fell right on top of her, purposefully, and grabbed her by the shoulders, dragging her down with me.

She was so surprised, I didn't think she even though about flying.

A few blocks above the ground, I let go of the valkyrie and flung out my wings, feeling the strain as they caught the air and halted my fall so that I landed on the ground a little ways away from where she'd crashed to the ground.

From what I could see, several bloodied white feathers had come out, but I didn't think her wings were actually broken, thankfully. They were shrinking back to their original size as well.

She was coughing, and not even trying to sit up. She'd dropped her spear during the fall, and it lay broken at my feet.

I walked slowly over to her, crouched beside her, and set my claws lightly on her neck, not piercing the skin. And that was where I stopped.

The valkyrie opened one of her eyes weakly and looked at me. A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "Go ahead..." She whispered, her voice a bit wheezy, "Kill me. You have... won..."

I felt a wench in my gut, "I won't" I said, pulling away my hand and stepping back.

"Why not...?"

I looked at her, my violet eyes with not the slightest hint of malice in them. "I thought the valkyries were honorable. Why do you want me to kill you?"

"I have... failed... I am not honorable, not worthy. It is honorable for the victor to take the life of the loser..."

"It is against my honor to kill. I do not follow your rules of honor. Now, come on" I couldn't let the valkyrie know that I was afraid of killing.

I held out my hand for her, to help her up, but both of us froze when we heard a sound from not too far away.

I slowly turned, to see a familiar figure, his hands raised and in the motion of clapping.

"Bravo" He called to us, to me.

Notch.


End file.
